Sharanagati

First of all I have to say “Thanks” to all of you for coming, because in this way you give me a chance to serve, to remember what I have heard and learned from my masters. And to put a very essential message at the beginning of this lecture: if we want to formulate what is the real meaning of life – in short – it is that we should live for someone else. For others. And if you give me the chance to live for you, I feel very happy and satisfied.

We are always under influence. Sometimes under positive influence, other times under negative influence. Sometimes we are under the influence of the sun, other time we are under the influence of the…?

Somebody: Moon.

Tirtha Maharaj: … darkness. But actually, if you mentioned sun and moon, we can say that these are two types of influence, two types of knowledge – the sun-consciousness and the moon-consciousness. What is the sun-consciousness for general people?

Yamuna: Man power.

Tirtha Maharaj: Yes. Male aspect. And what is the moon-consciousness?

Yamuna: Female aspect.

Tirtha Maharaj: Yes, this is the female aspect. Sun is the obvious, moon is the hidden. We can say that sun is the open divinity and moon is the mystic divinity. Who is our sun?

Yamuna: Krishna.

Tirtha Maharaj: And who is our moon?

Harilila: Radha.

Kripadham: Gurudev.

Yamuna: Mahaprabhu.

Tirtha Maharaj: I see that the sun is obvious for most of you. Moon is… according to taste. But actually this is not a casino: like this or like that. No, this is philosophy. Moon is the benediction moon and this is Mahaprabhu. So either you are under the influence of the obvious sun, the sunshine – krishna surya sama maya haya andhakara[1] – „Krishna is like the sun and illusion is like the darkness.” And wherever there is the sun, there is no power of the darkness anymore. This is the obvious divine message. But Mahaprabhu came with a special, hidden message. Lord Chaitanya was living about five hundred plus some years ago on planet Earth. He came with a very special message and He is like a unique combination of mysticism and open movement. Because these are three steps of spiritual practice: something very obvious, like a movement, broadscale; the other is smaller scale, like a mission; and the third one is secret scale, like mysticism, mystic circles. Therefore we can say that you are either under the influence of the sun – the obvious, general religiosity – or we are under the influence of some mystic process – the divine alchemy, how to turn a crude metal into gold.

Which process you would like to follow – the general religiosity or a mystic process? What is your preference? Because we are always under influence – either divine, or material. The choice is not only once in your life. It’s a day by day choice, day by day decision. “Ah my Lord, today I will dedicate my time to illusion.” No!